Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean reports McCareins paid a visit to his former team Tennessee on Thursday. He was recently released by the New York Jets, and Washington has also shown interest.

The Bears figure to choose a receiver in the first three rounds of the April draft, and with high hopes pinned on Devin Hester and Mark Bradley by management, it's less likely they would make a play for McCareins now that Booker is on board. But if the price was right, you couldn't rule it out.

Categories:

No TrackBacks

26 Comments

Give Mike Hass a chance!! The guy runs solid routes, has a good work ethic and has glue for hands. How can a former Biletnikoff Award winner who showed promise in preseason games get overlooked so consistently? The 'dropsies' were a huge issue last year and this guy has hands like fly-paper.

I really hope the Bears will consider keeping some veterans on board for 08, it is real hard for rookie receivers to come into this league and have big years. I think Rashied Davis is a good complement to Booker and the tight ends, so it would be beneficial for the Bears to try and sign him as soon as possible. I remember back when we had Bobby Engram, and actually wish we still had him, but, he was a go to guy on third downs when other plays were covered, so I am reminded of him with Rashied.

Why is everyone obsessed with Mike Hass? I have never seen so much about a player that has done nothing in the NFL. All over this website and the bears message board. Enough with this practice squad scrub.

Why sign D.J. to a big year contract when the Bears believe that they have a possible #1 in Hester.Im not sold on Hester being a #1 in 08, but I didnt play H.S. football or D1-A ball either so what do I know.
Having Booker that will give a chance to draft a WR and maybe pick up a insurence WR like Justin.
As far as Haas gos,The guy played against 3 string CBs in the Pre-Season last year.How much Value can you give a guy when he has never went against a #1 or #2 CB.He couldnt seperate from those CBs.If he cant seperate from a CB or a Safty,that will lead to INTs.I say give Haas a chance, but in games that are out of reach.That way if he does make mistakes it wont hurt the Bears chance of Winning.

I woul be reluctant to bring in Justin McCareins. He pretty well disappeared in New York under Herm Edwards, and Eric Mangini. When you have his combination of size and athleticism, and the team prefers to throw to Laverneous Coles and Jerrico Cotchery, and does so in the red zone on top of that, I say you have a guy who the league has figured out, and provides little to no benefit to the team. I say leave him alone.

As far as Mo's comments regarding Mike Hass, I would submit this: there is a long and distinguished list of players who did not get a chance early in their careers, or took a while before catching on, and went on to have productive NFL careers. The point with Hass is that none of us know whether or not he can get open against NFL defensive backs, and if his hands and savvy translate to the NFL level. He sat behind Muhammed, Berrian, Davis, Bradley, and Hester, and didn't get a chance to show what he can do. 2 of those guys are gone, and the only addition has been Marty Booker. Why keep the guy in camp on the practice squad if you don't see something in him to justify the spot on the squad? So let's see what the kid can do. He can't possibly make our WR group any worse, but maybe he can be this team's Bobby Engram, or Tom Waddle, or Brian Baschnagel. It doesn't cost us any more to give the kid a shot, where it cost us to bring in Booker, and will cost us to bring in McCareins.

It seems likely that Rashied Davis will go to a team that needs a kick returner, like Kansas City, and the Bears will not match the offer. They tendered him at the lowest amount, so we get nothing if we let him go. Teams are interested in signing these guys, as there is no penalty for doing so. So if we lose Rashied, who was our best slot receiver, who takes that position? Why not try out Rideau, Hass, Bradley, and Hester to see who fits that spot best? Booker is not quick enough any more to play the slot, and McCareins is not a slot receiver (if we did sign him). We should take a WR early (first 3-4 rounds) in the draft, but also understand that it takes a couple of years for them to figure out the pro game and really be effective. Personally, I would love for us to use one of our 3rd round picks on Eddie Royal from Virginia Tech. I think he can be a great fit for our offense. But in the meantime, we need to understand what we are dealing with on the current roster, which it seems that we do not.

That is the one complaint I have with the coaching staff; we don't have any idea what the depth on our roster is capable of in real game action on offense. It seems like we know less about the bottom 20 guys on our roster than we do about the top 20 OL prospects in the draft. Development of our younger players has been sorely neglected on the offensive side of the ball, despite poor play, injuries, and lack of production. Ruben Brown was playing half the season with basically one arm....you think Josh Beekman would have gotten a chance to play? Nope, they left a one-armed man on the line, and our offense suffered because of it. Muhammed was not getting open, and dropped more than one clearly catchable ball. We knew he was not in our long-term plan, but did we let Hass, Rideau, and Bradley play in his spot? Nope. We kept him and his poor attitude on the field until the last two weeks, and only let Bradley play. Do I think any of the guys on the roster are future Pro Bowlers? Probably not, but they may be productive NFL players, but we have no idea if they are or are not. The Bears have been paying these guys for 2 seasons, and they should let them have a shot and see if they can really cut it. If they can't, we bring in other guys to take their place. If they can, we just saved the money we spent bringing in Marty Booker, and possibly bringing in Justin McCareins.

Booker is okay. If Hester and Bradley can improve even a little we'll be fine at WR. The big issue is still the offensive line. They can sign all the talented receivers in the world but the offense will struggle behind a poor O-line. I'm not concerned about any other position right now. Address the offensive line then build the offense.

Mo
Get a clue. He's done nothing in the NFL because The Bears are doing nothing to develop him. Last I checked, 2+2=4. You're not going to see Hass do anything in the NFL if he isn't given playing time. Use your noodle.

Brando - you hit the nail on the head... our development of young players sucks. In my mind, it is an indictment of a coaching staff that is not only clueless in game planning and management, but also personnel decisions. I haven't a clue if Hass and Rideau can play WR at the NFL level, but I do know that to have these guys (along with Beekman) on contract and NEVER give them a shot is a misuse of resources (money and people). Anyone that has ever been in any type of business can tell you that you can't just waste resources that way. Another example of poor development of young personnel is Garret Wolfe. Seems like we hadn't a clue how to use him until that last few games of the year. A third round pick MUST contribute in his first year or it's a failure of the player or coaching staff.

Its not like we drafted Hass and wont give him a chance. The Saints had him and I believe he was on another squad before Chicago. Its there job to evaluate talent and I'm sure if Hass was this hidden gem on our practice squad, they would have given him a chance already. Rashied Davis, Bradley, Justin Gage, Bobby Wade are all mediocre wideouts so its not like Hass was struggling to get on a roster that already included pro bowl receivers.

So now we sign Brandon Lloyd to a one year deal? I don't understand what we think we can get out of him. He basically gave up on two teams once he got his money, and has not been the same since early in his career when he had some great red zone receptions. I am starting to doubt the sanity of our free agent acquisitions. We should be signing Jake Scott, not Brandon Lloyd...

As a U of Oregon alum and huge Duck fan, I can tell you I was extremely relieved to see Mike Hass go when he moved on to the NFL from Oregon State. I've seen him play in games live and I can tell you straight up that the guy was incredible for the Beavers. (FYI, don't forget, Housh and Chad Johnson were Beavs, too.) Even though Hass had many, many doubters about his athleticism and skills in college, he proved everyone wrong be performing big time in game after game in the Pac-10. Having watched him live my perception is he is a serious gamer.

The grabs he made for the Bears in the preseason last year were no fluke. If given a chance, Hass should prove he belongs in the NFL.

I agree with John A about Hass. They also had another WR named Dave Ball who was not a brunner but had great hands like Hass. I watched one game when the 2 of them were out doing each other making circus catches.

About Hass: I'm sure that Texas had adversaries who were elated that Benson went to the NFL as well. But how has that turned out for the BEARS. Frankly, Fans constantly think that the guy on the bench or the guy who played in the fourth quarters of preseason games always can be better than the guy who is actually starting. College play does not always translate into success in the pros. You have a right to question any and everything about the talent evualtion of the coaches and GM running this team because overall some things that they do don't make sense. But 31 other teams could have plucked Hass off our practice squad and didn't bother. The guy has had plenty of knocks to overcome(read about them in Wikipedia) and maybe he will be something special but I'm not going to get all up in arms over a practice squad player who other teams don't want. We don't hide talent. Sometimes we are a little slow to make changes but once a guy shows that he is the real deal we actually utilize tham better. And with teams throwing mucho dineros to one dimensional players it would be prudent to get better overall talent and work with that. Hass is the only Bilitnetkof winner who wasn't drafted in the 1st round. All 31 teams including the BEARS passed on him until he was drafted in the 6th round. Tom Waddle, Brian Baschnagel( that's a golden oldie whose name you don't hear very often), Terry Obee, Glen Koslowski, Dennis Gentry,and guys who "over achieve" have always done well with the BEARS but wouldn't even make any other team. We love those lunch-pail guys to death and that's why this team always manage to put those kind of guys out there when we fail to get those other Biletnikof winners or true talent. Out of all those guys we loved how many of them started for another team? Rest my case.

William did you read a Blog of mine?I had mentioned Terry Obee as being one of my Fav. players that I had Watched.Man when he made a catch against the Cowboys in Dallas, I couldnt believe what I just seen.He jumped from the 6 yard line, parallel to the ground, and made the catch in the endzone.One of my fav. catches by a Bears player.
Other great catches.
Jeff Grahm in N.Y. against the Jets, catches a overthrown ball going out of the endzone.He plucked it out of the air with one hand and tapped his toes in the back of the endzone for a T.D.

Tom Waddle in some game, some where.Tommy gos up for a 6 yard pass,gets BLASTED and knocked out and still holds on to the ball for the first down.He returned to play the game but had no idea where he was.Still to the day he cant remember the play.

I read ALL the entries even when I might not agree with them. I do remember that catch. I did remember that someone did mention Obee recently and that's why he stuck in my mind. I had to commment on that guy eventually. Don't get me wrong I don't dislike the guys we've had. I just don't think that they stack up with other guys who were in the league during the time that they were here. Guys like Waddle got killed because we had QBs who couldn't get the ball out there unless it was a circus catch to be made. Mangum did them better than almost any one in BEAR's history.

Tom Waddle MADE Jim Harbaugh. That man threw ducks until he got it together. Tomczak should've been glad he started with us because if he had actually started with who he ended up with they would have dropped him so fast. Stenstrom? I really thought he had the pedigree to be average but he was a big disappointment.

I watched Mike Haas at OSU and he can run the routes, though not blazing speed he is a smart wide out that even if not open can still make the catch. Didnt see to much of that out of last years so called better class NFL receivers, not only did not not get open they could not catch the ball when they were open. Correct me if I am wrong but isnt that the main objective to being a wide receiver? You want work ethics, a player that can make space and "catch" the ball, give Mike a real shot, dont look at his speed or size look at the actions!